


Armoured

by C_Syns



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Family, Family Issues, Gen, Internal Conflict, Internal Monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27047830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C_Syns/pseuds/C_Syns
Summary: Saki is the Shredder, and he isn't.Saki is not armor or man.And his thoughts sometimes aren't his own.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Armoured

It was her. Karai.

He’d felt her, like a weight, like a feather, the fierce, piercing pain of a blade through his heart, and the soothing embrace of family that calmed him. She was a constant companion, a constant enemy, and confidant. 

As he’d slumbered through the dark centuries she found her way into his dreams, as a young girl in the warm memories of playing in the spring and summer. As he’d slumbered she’d found her way into his nightmares, as a young woman, grim and gray on the battlefield, standing tall in front of him even though she was dwarfed by him, by his armor.

Her weight was like a stone, a millstone around his neck, dragging him down and down, into the twilight dimension and holding him there.

It was her, Karai.

He wanted to run to her, to hold her, to help her.

He wanted to scream, to warn her.

When the kappa had taken her away it felt like victory as he menaced the three remaining.

When he found her, behind the strange, small armored warrior it tasted like ash in a mouth he no longer had.

He wanted to reach out to her, his hand was a claw, sharp and gleaming in the dark. It reached for her, poised and sharp and wicked.

The red one kept him from her.

The red one drew her to him.

The touch of Karais hand was like fire, it burned through the armor, electrifying each piece with pain, separately blazing and burning him to his core.

The touch of Karais hand was like the sun that he hadn’t seen in centuries, and he never wanted to let go.

She had seemed eternal, after all the time in the Twilight Realm.

Standing over her, victorious, as she died, the creatures she had protected fled from him. He smiled, sharp and wicked and pursued them.

It felt right. To pursue what she had died protecting. It felt right to hunt down what had caused her death, to destroy those who had not protected her. The darkness left in his heart slotted, easily, into the darkness of the armor.

Taking the new Hamato in Karais stead was nothing, the new Hamatos were nothing, running and failing, weak and wanting. They were no Karai.

Until they were.

It was Karai, or her spirit, inhabiting one of the Hamato clan, and with her the rest. Maybe the ashes of victory were sweetened, slightly. The heart he didn’t have clenched, he reached, and his claws were sharp and wicked, his smile was a snarl. They buzzed around him like flies, and beat against his armor.

They would be swatted like flies, nothing could pierce the armor of Shredder.

Nothing

It was Karai, in the end, who greeted him.

To hold her was more than the half dreams of spring or summer, or of the memories he couldn’t remember of his daughter. There was a lightness, a kindness and a softness even as he embraced her as tightly as he ever had.

It was Karai and Saki and the entire Hamato clan who left, together and whole.

**Author's Note:**

> I dunno man you think Saki had his own thoughts in there or was he Shredderized more?


End file.
